The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

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Hello People!!!!!!

Hello people of the cartographers guild. I do not really know what to say so i will start with i think cartography is cool but there is so much that goes into making a map believable. I really like fantasy and I really want to write a book about some of the adventures in a world I created but I did not feel comfortable writing it with out a map to refer to. I kind of went backwards and made the people and the cultures before I made a landmass. I use campaign cartographer because my drawing skills are made of butt I have the land mass but I do not know how large of an area I want to cover because I cant have my characters running all over the entire world and when ever I try to lay out the mountains and stuff it all looks really awkward and done on purpose so I have come here to ask people that know what they are doing when it comes to cartography so then I can make my map and get started on my book.

Welcome to the guild! You'll find lots of people here who know what they are doing, and lots of people learning new things. Go ahead and post the beginnings of your map and you'll get lots of helpful comments right away. There are also some good discussions on world building, which it sounds like you have some experience in. Enjoy!

I second Meshon's recommendation. In addition, there are some tutorials for CC3 in the tutorials section (which can easily be found in the sticky "Tutorials in PDF format") that may be of use to you. Best wishes in your project.

Here's some practical thinking material for you: What is the fastest mode of transport your characters have available? Humans traveling in a small group should be able to cover around 15 miles per day without overly tiring themselves. On horses they can make perhaps 30 miles in a day, but the horses will need rest after a certain number of days (I don't know horses very well, so I don't know the limits of their endurance).

What kind of time period do you anticipate your story covering? Pioneers on the Oregon Trail took about 5 months to cover the 2000 miles from St Louis to Oregon in ox-drawn wagons. Note that they had to cross two mountain ranges during that time, and it also included some time breaking trails.

Those pieces of information should give you an idea of what kind of scale you should look at for your primary mapping area.

Here's some practical thinking material for you: What is the fastest mode of transport your characters have available? Humans traveling in a small group should be able to cover around 15 miles per day without overly tiring themselves. On horses they can make perhaps 30 miles in a day, but the horses will need rest after a certain number of days (I don't know horses very well, so I don't know the limits of their endurance).

What kind of time period do you anticipate your story covering? Pioneers on the Oregon Trail took about 5 months to cover the 2000 miles from St Louis to Oregon in ox-drawn wagons. Note that they had to cross two mountain ranges during that time, and it also included some time breaking trails.

Those pieces of information should give you an idea of what kind of scale you should look at for your primary mapping area.

I want it to cover 1 to 2 months maybe three, I really want the world to be as big as Earth and just focus on one part of the map for all the journeys and stuff but I always find my self covering too large of an area on my maps because I have so much that I want to include so I end up covering an area that would surely take my characters months upon months to traverse on foot or by horse or whatever other type of traveling animal my brain comes up with and when I try to scale things down so then my would fit a smaller area it does not seem to work out right it looks awkward and everything looks way too close and squished